Fingers pointed at Qatar-based charity as food poisoning kills 2 at Mosul camp

BAGHDAD: Food poisoning at a camp for displaced residents of Mosul killed at least two people and sickened over 700, Iraq’s health minister said Tuesday. Some officials accused a Qatar-based charity of providing tainted food — a claim that could not be confirmed.

A woman and a girl died and at least 200 people were rushed from the desert tent camp to hospitals in the nearby city of Irbil. Iraqi lawmaker Raad Al-Dahlaki, who chairs the Parliament’s Immigration and Displacement Committee and who visited the camp, said the meal contained rice, a bean sauce, meat, yoghurt and water.

Al-Dahlaki said the food was distributed by a Qatari non-governmental organization (NGO), a charity known as RAF.

On Twitter, Saudi state television accused RAF of supplying the tainted meals and posted images it said showed the camp’s children “poisoned by the terrorist Qatari RAF organization.”

RAF is the acronym for the Qatarbased Thani Bin Abdullah Al-Thani Foundation for Humanitarian Services.